Universal Beings

About

For a jazz drummer, Makaya McCraven has a rather unorthodox way of making album. Back in 2014, he began hosting a live-improv series with other like-minded Chicago musician. “We recorded everything, and I started to just mess with it as sample,” McCraven tells Apple Music. He would pluck out the best parts from those extended jams and, with digital editing software, build entirely new track. The result—2015’s aptly titled <i>In the Moment</i>—introduced a style of hip-hop-inspired production that owes as much to Madlib as it does Sun Ra. But it still comes down to that source material. “It’s always about playing with lots of people, in lots of situation, and exploring as many avenues as I can to push me to grow as an artist,” he say. Culled from what he calls “spontaneous compositions”—recorded live with different ensembles in four citie, then recomposed digitally—<i>Universal Beings</i>, McCraven's third official album, is both a testament to his creative ambitions and a pulse-taking of modern jazz. British tenor heavyweight Shabaka Hutching, who appears on the Chicago session, plays with rhythmic ferocity, while fellow London saxophonist Nubya Garcia offers laidback counterpoint to Ashley Henry’s moody Rhodes piano. "I think they’re coming from more of a groove sensibility,” McCraven says of his London collaborator, some of whom he met literally moments before they took the stage together for these recording. “A lot of them are tapping into the diverse fabric of the city, with music from the West Indie, Afrobeat, British soul.” .

via Apple Music

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